1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a track jump control system for an optical information recording apparatus such as an optical disk apparatus by which information is recorded in or reproduced from an optical disk through an optical beam.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, optical disk apparatus have been widely used for storing image information since such apparatus can record a great deal of image information, such as documents. Surface information on a disk is photoelectrically transduced by two-dimensionally scanning the disk with a light beam. The transduced image information data are recorded in an image recorded apparatus, and the recorded data are retrieved or reproduced from the apparatus. e.g., by printing as hard copy.
An optical disk for recording information in spiral fashion has generally been used for the optical recording apparatus. Information is recorded or reproduced on the disk by an optical or light beam generated from an optical head moved in a straight line along the radial direction of the disk by a linear motor. The optical head is moved along a linear scale at a high speed to gain access to a target track with the light beam appropriately focused on the disk surface through an object lens. After the head has been moved, the track number at which the optical beam is located is read from the disk. If the track number thus read is not equal to the target track number, the optical beam of the head is moved (jumped) track-by-track until it is located at the target track. However, when the difference between the traget track number and the actual track number is significant, e.g., several tens of tracks, a problem arises in that, since the track jump process is effected track-by-track, the access time for the track jump operation is excessive.